Bryson Going Tour-Less? Why The Unthinkable Could Now Happen

If you’ve been living under a mound of Pro V1s, you may have missed a tornado of pro golf news last week.

Last Monday, the PGA Tour announced an immediate pathway back for four LIV players who qualified under the newly created Returning Member Program. Brooks Koepka, one of the four, has decided to take that pathway and will be playing on Tour later this month. The penalties for coming back are either lenient or severe depending on who you ask (I would call them lenient).

The other three players—Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith—were given a deadline of Feb. 2 to decide if they wanted to take the same deal.

Suddenly, speculation was rampant. Was LIV dead? Would there be a mass exodus?

Less than 24 hours later, we appeared to receive our answer. All three LIV players pledged allegiance to their current league, citing contracts and family time as primary reasons for staying.

The press conference answers were not very enthusiastic. DeChambeau and Rahm looked like hostages, offering lukewarm responses about how they were contractually obligated to play LIV this season. Smith gave a much more confident answer, saying he would be on LIV “for years to come.”

“I’m contracted through 2026 so excited about this year,” DeChambeau said. Later, he added that his team is in contract negotiations with LIV and they hope to come to a “solution that makes sense in the long term. If not, we’ll play this year and see what happens.”

I wouldn’t feel great about those answers if you’re on the LIV side. DeChambeau has just one year left on his LIV contract. All bets are off after that.

One of the possibilities? That DeChambeau could not play on any tour at all in 2027, focusing on YouTube while dipping back into the marquee events as he saw fit.

“It’s an incredibly viable option, I’ll tell you that,” DeChambeau told Front Office Sports. “Doing the course-record series and playing ‘Break 50s’ [his most popular YouTube segment] does keep me quite dialed in for tournament golf. That’s why I do it right before competition. It’s a possibility—the financial opportunities are there—and I’m excited to see what comes in the future.”

Is this just Bryson being Bryson? Or is there some validity to this option?

I’ll admit that, even five short years ago, this would have sounded insane—but now that YouTube golf has become so prominent, it’s becoming a real option.

Why I believe Bryson is seriously considering this route

DeChambeau is averaged around 22 million views per month last year on YouTube. He has more than 2.5 million subscribers.

We estimate that Bryson is making around $800,000 annually just in YouTube ad revenue that we know about, but that is only one of his revenue streams outside of his gargantuan eight-figure LIV contract.

He has long-term deals with Reebok, Rolex, NetJets and Qualcomm. Earlier this month, he became the first athlete to sign with the prediction market Kalshi. Bryson is also a founding partner at LA Golf.

If he were to only do YouTube, it’s well within reason that DeChambeau could easily sustain himself with all of his partnerships.

But just because he would be on YouTube without any tour membership doesn’t mean his competitive golf days would be over. DeChambeau could become like Notre Dame in college football—an independent creating his own schedule.

He is exempt at the Masters, PGA Championship and Open Championship through 2029 so those are at least four more appearances at each of those majors. He is exempt at the U.S. Open through 2034.

Not only would he be making a lot more money in those events but he also has the chance to earn world ranking points and add to his eligibility for future majors.

By the time Bryson’s major exemptions run out at the earliest, he would be 36 years old. If he won just one of his major starts over the next four seasons, he would likely be able to bridge his major appearances all the way into the end of his playing career.

On top of that, DeChambeau could receive sponsor exemptions to PGA Tour and DP World Tour events if he decided he wanted to participate in those. He is still a top 30 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, which would qualify him into a lot of tournaments—although the Tour has limitations on sponsor exemptions into signature events and he wouldn’t be able to waltz into the FedEx Cup.

Perhaps LIV could add him as a wild card to certain big events such as the Australia and South Africa stops.

The world might not be ready to hear this but he could also create his own tournaments or participate in any other random future events (imagine Bryson at the Internet Invitational).

Why would DeChambeau stay with LIV?

Here is the question I have for Bryson.

What is the point of continuing to play fulltime on LIV?

He is already getting way, way more exposure with his own YouTube channel compared to how many people are watching LIV.

He could truly set his own schedule and not even have to concern himself with going to Riyadh to play in front of nobody. He could basically become the first player to not have to worry about membership duties.

Sure, he could leverage LIV into giving him $500 million or something absurd for his next contract.

But if you are Bryson, what is the point of adding a few zeros to your bank account? He will have already made more than $100 million on LIV. Add in the $37 million he made on the Tour. Add in all the sponsorships, YouTube revenue, etc. …

He could probably make whatever he wanted on his own, anyway.

If DeChambeau cares about his legacy more than money, what is more of a legacy-defining move than becoming the first world-class golfer to say “f*** you” to the established golf world by going off on his own?

It’s crazy to think about but this could open the door for top players to be creators and legitimate independent contractors.

It’s not like the Tour is on the brink of collapse because everyone will go off on their own.

But could one guy do it? I think it’s possible.